Death's Apprentice (Synopsis)

One fateful day, Death's apprentice awakens to find his master missing and his home in ruins. There definitely seemed to have been a struggle recently, and it sends shivers down the young novice's spine to think of someone or something that would be powerful enough to capture his master. The boy's only lead to where his master may be is a note saying he had many souls to collect from the small town of Lowell later that day. As he sets off, Death's apprentice wonders if he'll ever see his master again.Upon arriving in the town, Death's apprentice finds it under attack by a gang of bandits. Three local warriors are trying to defend the town from the invasion, but the overwhelming numbers place them at a terrible disadvantage. Death's apprentice finally intervenes when he realizes he will get no information about his master with the war taking place in the town's streets. Once the apprentice and the warrior group kill the last remaining enemies, they gather back at the town hall to discuss everyone's problems.The three ultimately team up with Death's apprentice after learning his true identity. The three feel they owe the young man for helping rid the town of the bandits, and they also realize the world will never be restored to its natural order unless Death can be found and brought back to his former position.The group's journey will be a long one filled with many dangerous encounters, so the apprentice grants his new-found friends the ability to separate a soul from its fleshy prison or, in other words, kill others. The journey takes the group across the many nations that make up the world of Barron including the four borders of the massive continent in the east, south, west and north. The finally comes to a conclusion in the dreaded Bad Lands of the north. In the end, Death's apprentice finally finds his missing master. It turns out that Death was never really kidnapped. He had planned all of this from the start, and the note his apprentice found held a secret message that could only be revealed by Death. Death shows his apprentice that he was supposed to collect the souls of his companions who would've fell to the enemy that day if the young student hadn't intervened. Then, Death commands his apprentice to take the lives of his friends to complete his initiation as the true master of death. When the apprentice refuses, Death forces the group into a final showdown. After a long battle, Death is defeated, and the apprentice takes the new title by absorbing his former master's soul. He then grants his companions and their family the gift of immortality for their contributions to his epic journey.